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It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine

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Twentieth Century Zoo interview with Paul "Skip" Ladd

The 20th Century Zoo managed to produce one of the most
fuzziest records. "Thunder on a Clear Day" came out in 1968 on Vault Records.
Many of my friends collectors agree, that this is among the best US psych
albums with really non-stop fuzz. Here we have an opportunity to talk with
their lead guitarist.

Fuzziest records, ok yeah, ever since I heard Keith Richards
stomp down on Satisfaction, the sound of rock cracked through a new level of
ruff saw tooth waveforms.Greg Farley
and I were using Vox foot-pedals for the recording sessions with the TCZ.

During the Laserbeats days our lead singer’s father was an
electronic technician and we used a little tube phono amplifier for a record
player that plugged into the wall socket and used an RCA plug to a standard
adapter on the input with just a standard plug to the amp. We used it for one of the Battle of the Bands
at the 1965 car show to get people’s attention. When we would start off with the Wild Angels theme song I made it sound
like a Harley Davidson starting up and taking off, hot sound, loved it! Oh yeah we won that Battle of the Bands for
the 2nd year in a row. The first year it
was put on by KRIZ radio in 1964, then KRUX radio in 1965.

Where did you grow up, Skip and what were some of the
earliest influences on you?

My mom showed me my first song “Little Brown Jug” on a tenor
guitar with only 4 strings. My brother Bill Ladd, or “Wee Willie” was a guitarist that
showed me my first 3 chords. His band
would practice at our house when I was just a kid and his sax player would blow
smoke out the end of the sax to my amazement. His band, Wee Willie and the Coachmen, complained that I was strumming
too loud, so they gave me a washboard and a thimble to play along. Six months later I was running rings around
my brother on guitar.

Phoenix, Arizona is where I grew up listening to Duane Eddy,
who also grew up in Phoenix. Paul
Butterfield, as well, had some great guitarist to emulate with Elvin Bishop
& Mike Bloomfield. Later Jimi
Hendrix was the guitarist to learn licks from.

Your first band were The Hodads. After that you were in The
Nightriders, which would later become The Laserbeats. What's the story behind
these bands? Did you record something? Where and with who did you play gigs
with?

The Hodads, was a bass player named Bob Funk, rhythm guitar
was my brother-in-law Randy Elliot, drummer was Bill Small, whose older brother
was Ed Small, our manager and one of Hell’s Angels, San Bernardino, California
Chapter. Ed would get us gigs that would
include free beer for the band, even though we were under age. We took black cowboy hats and threw them in
the washing machine, then put them over a broom handle to dry. That gave all the band members pointed
heads. One night, on the day that John
F. Kennedy was shot we were playing for a party in a house up on South
Mountain. The girls were all over at the
kitchen table sobbing. This big American
Indian guy was drunk and decided to steal my hat right off of my head. When I tried to get it back, he slugged me
into an upright piano with my arms catching all the keys at once! The girls at the table are now screaming and
crying more, till Randy Elliot, a golden gloves boxer, stepped between us and
ended the fight, getting my pointed hat back in the process. Another night Bill Small was playing Wipe
Out and all of a sudden the drums stopped and the cymbals crashed, our drummer
had passed out drunk. A couple of
football players each grabbed him by the arms and he was like walking in
mid-air while I finished the song playing drums. Then the liquor control police showed up at
the party and I threw the drummer over the wall, we hid out inside of a banged
up racing stock car on the floor until the police left. We never got a record.

The Night-Riders were from top to bottom Roger Eich (Tenor
Sax & Bass), Skip Ladd (Lead Guitar), Neal Smith (Drums), David Eich (Steel
Guitar & Bass), Stanley Boghosian (Rhythm Guitar). Other bands in town were jealous of us and
called us Aristocratic Rockers because we would play for the rich people in private day schools, Camelback Inn,
Mountain Shadows, resorts, Christian Youth Organization dances, proms, that our
manager Chari Zelman would get us. Later
we got a lead singer that had like a 4 octave range, but was missing a
chromosome, Steve Hudson. He’s the guy
in the white dinner jacket.

From left to right Roger Eich, David Eich, Neal Smith, Steve
Hudson, Skip Ladd, Stan Bogosian.

Steve’s father was an electronic technician and would tell
us about the future with Laser beams being used for all kinds of
applications. So since the Beetles
changed the “e” to an “a” to make Beatles, we changed the “m” to a “t” to make
Laser Beats. Neal made a black velvet
bass drum head that said Laser Beats written in silver glitter. Every time we would play using Steve Hudson
we would leave behind silver glitter on the stage from Neal’s thumper
foot. The jackets we wore were blue with
black velvet trim. The group all sang
and we did a lot of current material from 1964 & 1965. If we didn’t know a song for a request, we
would do it the next time we returned. So one kid said how about this one? “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” We
didn’t know it, but learned it for the next time we played where we dressed up
and each sang a different verse complete with Roger playing upright tub bass. Again our manager was Chari Zelman. We would record at Audio Recorders on 7th
street in Phoenix. Barracuda (original),
Wipe Out, Sugar Shack, Johnny Be Good, Love On A Windy Hill (original), Nobody (original), Popcorn Man (original). We
also did some tape recording at the old Maryweather’s Mansion that many kids
thought was haunted. We would play gigs
at the V.I.P. club for Jack Curtis with our friends the Spiders as the English
Laser Beats, dress up with wigs and do all English music, Beatles, Rolling
Stones, Manfred Mann, Kinks, Dave Clark 5. We also used to play gigs with the Spiders when they were the
Earwigs. Spiders changed their name to
the Nazz and went to California where they changed their name to Alice
Cooper. Once the Spiders manager called
our manager Chari Zelman to fly me down to Tucson, Arizona on Mike Bruce’s
birthday to fill in for their sick lead guitarist Glen Buxton. Dennis Dunaway shouted chords and stops over
my shoulder. We pulled it off, but I
received a Western Union Telegram from Phoenix that my girlfriend Mad Wagner’s
father had died and wanted me back in Phoenix ASAP so I skipped the party
afterwards and returned in the rain.

The Laserbeats

Other members of The 20th Century Zoo were in a band called
The Bittersweets, who had a few singles out and opened for big acts like Blue
Cheer, The Byrds and Canned Heat. You joined them and out of this The 20th
Century Zoo were born. Would you like to tell us about your joining and forming
another band. Where did this took place? In Phoenix?

Our manager also managed a group called the
Bittersweets. She told Steve Hudson
& I to go listen to an audition at the Thunderbird Golf Course for lead singers and give her our opinion on
who they should pick. We picked Bob
Sutko because he was like the male answer to Janis Joplin. Alice Cooper would say “But what was the
question??” Steve Hudson thought his
name sounded like a car and saw that Alice changed his name so he changed his
name to Steph McGlaughlin. We couldn’t
stand it and went back to the Night-Riders and Steph started Themselves. When we played at the Arizona State
Fairgrounds “Cavalcade of Stars” we saw them. Roger Eich had a chopper Harley Davidson with straight pipes that shot
fire up and lit up the side of the grandstand. He told me to get on the back and hold on! Next thing I know he’s pulling one long
wheelie down the Avenue of Flags with people running to get out of the way!

The Bittersweets were playing on KRIZ radio a song called
“Cry Your Eyes Out” that sounded just like the Byrds. Chari Zelman wanted to put me in as a lead
guitar player because the other guy just stood there, no showmanship, and
wasn’t very original. Neal had gone on
to California with the Holy Grail and later Alice Cooper. So Chari Zelman put me into the Bittersweets
in Phoenix. We were playing at the
V.I.P. club one night and heard there was girl that was fried on LSD leaning up
against the outside wall of the club that was talking up a storm so our band
went out to listen to her. She said “Oh
you guys are all so different, but when you play you are like a group, sort of
like a 20th Century Zoo!!!”

How did you choose the name of the band and how for your
album?

When the Bittersweets got popular in Phoenix, we would go to
the radio station KRIZ and talk to Tony Evans, our fearless leader. I wrote some 4 part harmony parts to promote
some of the disc jockey’s and Tony would have us answer the phones on call ins
before a gig that night. Tony Evans the
disc jockey put us in touch with the Vault label and a guy called Gene Simmons. At this point I’ll say, no not the Gene
Simmons from Kiss, because one kid got mad when he asked Gene Simmons from Kiss
about producing us and Gene had never heard of us! Anyway I digress, Gene Simmons in Hollywood
that owned a record store by the Free Press had us meet at Original Sound
Studios at Sunset & La Brea. Gene
said there was another band back east called the Bittersweets. We are going to have to change our name, did
we have anything in mind? We all looked
at each other and laughed, yeah 20th Century Zoo! Gene said that will work, 20th Century Fox
doesn’t own the 20th Century title, and if they do try to sue, it will just
promote the band even more. Let’s go with
it! So the group was named after a girl
on LSD’s ramblings.

The name for the album “Thunder On A Clear Day” was my idea. This was during the Vietnam war days and if
you heard thunder on a clear day, something was wrong or about to happen. In Phoenix we have a monsoon season and we
would practice down in a little shack out back of Greg Farley’s trailer. It was hot with only a fan blowing but when
the monsoon brought rain it would cool us off.

What was the scene in your city? Any other bands you
remember?

We had many clubs to play at when the baby boomers were
growing up before the disco era. V.I.P.
club, JD’s, Mr. Lucky’s, Hullabaloo, 5th Estate, Pyramid Club, Copper Kettle,
Stage 7, Hungry Eye, the Armory, CYO dances. Love Ins at the Encanto Park Band shell. Bands were like tribes, we were good friends with the Earwigs, Spiders,
Nazz, Alice Cooper since 1964. Phil and
the Frantics played out at the Red Dog in Scottsdale I’m still friends with
Gary Miller their sax man. Steve Dodge
was in the Vibratos and the Crabs, he later became the producer for the 21st
Century Zoo. Red White and Blues band,
Holy Grail, Thackory Rock, Young Men, Floyd & Jerry Westfall, the
Doorknobs, the Negligees, The Tubes, Salt River Navy Band, Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Superfine Dandelion.

How did you get signed to Vault Records?

We got signed to Vault Records through Art Leboe, to Tony
Evans, to Chari Zelman, to Norm Green the attorney who had all of our parents
come to his office to sign us up because we were not of age yet.

Before you were signed to Vault Records you released
single "Clean Old Man" /
"You Don't Remember" on Caz Records. This one was recorded in
Phoenix, right?

Right, this one was recorded in Studio A of Audio Recorders,
I wrote all the string parts and got the musicians from the Phoenix College
Orchestra. The pin ball room picture was
my idea too in downtown Phoenix. The
label name was CAZ which was our manager’s initials, Chari Ann Zelman.

You then went to Los Angeles to record your "Thunder on a
Clear Day" LP. What are some of the strongest memories from recording this LP?

Our regular keyboardist in Phoenix was pussy whipped, his
girlfriend didn’t want him to go out of town to record or tour. So we had to hire a studio musician in
Hollywood who came into the studio after seeing his therapist. This small guy would run from the Hammond B3
to the Grand Piano under our subdued red and blue lighting. Greg Farley played finger cymbals under my
direction on the first song. Mark Landon
and Gene Simmons were our recording engineers, Mark came up with some great
ideas for songs and would use a little practice amp to get that gritty
sound. He showed me how to saw tooth my
guitar picks too.

What gear did you guys use?

We used Kustom amps, mine had a 15” horn at the top that
after hearing it on the recording I changed it out to three 15” Jenson
speakers. They were the black tuck ‘n
roll cabinets with 200 watts power. Vox fuzz foot pedals. Orange Gretch Nashville guitars, the bass
player played a Hofner Violin Beatle Bass. The drum kit was mostly Rogers hardware with Zildjian cymbals.

Can we talk about song writing process in the band?

We all helped in the writing process, when it came to music
scoring that was my job, lyrics were done mostly by the lead singer Bob Sutko.

What stands out the most is the use of fuzz. Would you like
to comment that?

I liked to use the fuzz for leads, but not for chording to
get that punch when I needed it and cause more of the overtones to be more
responsive for controlled feedback. Greg
Farley liked to use fuzz for his rhythm parts just to add grittiness. In the sixties the recording studios had very
sensitive microphones for analogue recording to tape. Engineers were constantly telling us to turn
down, when we were wanting to turn up to near controlled feedback levels, so
our option was to use more fuzz.

What can you say about the cover artwork?

Tony Evans, our producer said you guys are going to love the
cover. It was done in LA as a mural with double naught pen, has like a hundred and one faces in it including yours, and
then was shrunk down to album size in red and blue.

Please comment each song:

A1 Quiet Before the Storm

The beginning was from a sound library that Gene Simmons
found. I wrote the music to tune up the
band so even start up would go into the performance. In rehearsals for the tour we would play this
song and it would rain, weird, but it was also monsoon season. Keyboard player didn’t know when our breaks
were.

A2 Rainbow

This song was inspired by one our Southwest tours. Randy Wells, our drummer at the time was just
goofing around with my guitar in the Morrison Hotel, Silver City, New
Mexico. He played the first riff and I
went wow, let me see that. I picked out
the same rhythm with a chord pattern to match. The tree outside had branches that scraped the window when the wind
blew. Bob Sutko added the lyrics and a
song was born.

A3 Bullfrog

Bullfrog was a song that Mark Landon introduced to us from a
guy that used to just sit up in the mountains and play guitar. We learned it in the studio. The train parts were added later during the
mixdown from the same library of sounds. In stereo it goes from one ear to the other as the train passes.

A4 Love in Your Face

Greg Farley had a lot to do with this song. The intro voices were Mark Landon creating a
fight scene with library of sounds for broken glass and siren in the mixdown.

B1 You Don't Remember

We had a couple of versions of this one. When it was recorded at Audio Recorders the
engineers had a big sheet of metal supported by springs with the signal fed on
one side and received on the other end of this big wooden box behind the
control booth. The feedback was
regenerative through the sheet of metal. Bob Sutko wrote the words and I just did fills with music. The Hollywood version uses tape loops to
start this song.

B2 It's All in My Head

Alan Chitwood would start this song and Bob Sutko put words
to it I didn’t wanted to come out and say it, but just infer meaning. I would play feedback fills right at the
threshold of studio acceptability. The
top horn sounded too tinny for me later and I had it removed.

B3 Blues With a Feeling - Jam

The song was originally by Little Walter. We used it as a fill song for the album, but
it turned out to be a blast to record.

Did you guys take any hallucinogens and if so, did they have
any impact on your sound?

There was an intro into the Hall of the Mountain King that I
did my poem for. I asked the producers
if it was ok if I smoked some hashish before I did it, so I went out of the
studio and came back in with a buzz ready to say my poem. The producers slowed the tape down and put a
little echo on it for effect. “We are
the 20th Century Zoo, trapped in a cage of civilized living, but yet still
inner grooving to the great calls of mother nature. Vibrations of the 20th Century we shall tune
in on, and with these vibrations we hope to break down the bars to
communication which line our cages. Help
us set each other free, in the hall of the mountain…

Mike Bruce, rhythm guitar for Alice Cooper, was my guide on
my first acid trip. Mike heard from one
of the twin male nurses that I was tripping by a phone call, then he showed up
at our roadies apartment, he had nothing to do with administration.

Greg Farley and I did take some Orange Sunshine in
Flagstaff, Arizona on our last set before we left. When I humped the amp, we didn’t have anyone
standing behind it holding it up so I rode that beast to the ground on our
final number. Then we set off in the
rain and watched a Greyhound bus turn into a stretched train. It rained so hard that we had to pull over
because Bob couldn’t see out the front window. Greg was sitting in the passenger side looking out the window when a
flash of lightning lit up a roadside Paul Bunyan lumberjack with his hand
out. It used to hold a tire, but the
tire was gone. Greg said “There’s a
giant outside my window!” Bob said,
“Greg, you’re stoned!” Greg said “Maybe,
but look for yourself!” Bob was like
“right, ok, uh huh, sure a giant is outside your window.” Lightning strikes again and there is a 40
foot Paul Bunyan standing by the van! We
all cracked up laughing when Bob sees it too! We drove again to get away from Paul Bunyan the lumberjack into the
Painted Desert just before the sun came up. We were shaking from riding so much energy in the van that we had him
pull over in the Painted Desert. I found
an old bucket that squeaked when I walked around looking for cool cactus
skeletons and interesting rocks. Greg
was running around us in circles enjoying the purple flowers that weren’t
there, in the rolling hills that weren’t really rolling, with the cloud
formations that were constantly changing shapes. I advised Greg that if he didn’t stop running
around in circles he was going to be sore tomorrow. When we pulled into Farmington, New Mexico at
a filling station there were some local kids that saw us all strung out from
the night before, they wanted to come see us just to see how we would do
it! Like vampires we would sleep in the
day and stay up late at night.

You shared stages with many bands and you also toured. Where
all were you, in what clubs did you play and with what bands?

In New York our opening act was Marcel Marceau a French
mime. We were playing at the Electric
Circus and in 1969 I had no idea who this guy was on our stage, first I had
ever seen him. We stayed our first night
at the Chelsea Hotel because that’s where all the bands stayed. Our manager was going to save some money and
heard that the Hotel Albert in Greenwich Village was where Frank Zappa and the
Mothers of Invention stayed. We didn’t
like it, there were bed bugs and it gave us the creeps. So we called Chari and had her book us back
in the Chelsea Hotel which was a much more happening place in the Village, yeah
it cost more, but it was worth it.

Bands ah, ok, in Detroit we played at the Eastown Theatre
with MC5 & The Original Howling Wolf. He was cool, backstage he had a bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey pouring
it into a Styrofoam cup. He would say,
“Here, you look like you need this more than I do!” No thanks, not before I play. After I played Howling Wolf came up to me and
asked “Where did you learn to play like Albert King?” I said “Funny you should mention that, we
just played a gig 2 weeks ago for the KREO Pop Festival in Indio, California
with Albert King on an ostrich race track!” Howling Wolf said “Maybe you should play in a band with Albert. Maybe Albert could learn something!” Ha ha!! I was on a blues ego trip for the next 3 days playing blues in the back
of the van.

In Scottsdale, Arizona we played a club called The Mad
Hatter with Canned Heat. We had several
4 foot black lights across the front of the stage, painted our fingers with
invisible ink with lines like bones, and wore gas masks that were painted in
day-glow paints. On CTA102 we would have
the masks on, the house lights would be turned off, the psychedelic lights
would spin and the inside of the masks would fog up so bad from your breath
that you couldn’t see any fret on your guitar. The other guys were flippin’ the masks off so they could see, but I just
grooved on it and played by feeling. Looked cool for a while with skeletons wearing gas masks playing music.

In Phoenix at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum we have played
opening acts for Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, Sweetwater, Frank Zappa and the
Mothers of Invention on mother’s day. At
the Arizona State Fairgrounds we opened for the Turtles.

Is there a crazy story, that happened while touring and you
would like to share it with us?

We were crossing the United States through Ohio during
tornado season, didn’t have a clue what to look for. I’m thinking wow, that wall of clouds looks
cool at sundown. Our roadie, Roger
Langford, was driving the van and we were pulling a trailer with all our
equipment at night when the storm hit. We saw the trailer pass the van on the freeway stick the front end into
the wet ground, flip up in the air higher than the van and land upside down
sliding down the inside grassy area. Lucky for us a road construction worker was behind us and put on his
yellow beacon flashers as we started running around in the rain collecting our
equipment and turned over the trailer, pulled over off the freeway and came up
with a plan. The trailer hitch was
broken off and we needed to replace it. We didn’t want to leave our equipment unattended, so four of us
including a hitch hiker stayed with the trailer, while Roger and another guy
went into the next town to get it fixed. The rain got worse, came down in sheets sideways, hail started pelting
us and we huddled together with our arms around our shoulders like a football
team in a huddle. It was one of those
moments that you have a choice to laugh or cry, so we laughed so hard huddled
in the rain that it looked like we were crying. Later we found out we were on the outskirts of a tornado that we
couldn’t see in the darkness.

Sundazed reissued your album with some bonus tracks. Were
they meant to be on your second LP, that never came out? And let's talk about
the end of the band. Apparently Uncle Sam was calling you?

The 2nd album I wanted to call “AWOL” from the 20th Century
Zoo. The second album mysteriously
disappeared, and I got drafted. Kind of
makes you go hmmm. Absent Without
Official Leave, hmmm. A month later I
heard that Bob Sutko got drafted too. In
Fort Lewis, Washington Bob was scheduled to arrive and I knew where they would
take the new inductees. I went there and
a Captain was in the back of this church trying to learn a John Denver tune on
his guitar so I showed him how to play it, then asked him if I could borrow his
guitar to sit up at the front pew of the church and play a few rounds of “Alice’s Restaurant” while the guys filed in. He said “Sure go ahead!” Only a
few of the guys got it, but Bob didn’t even recognize me, he looked all sad, so
I went up to him, stood right in front of him, looked him in the eye and said
“Hi Bob!” Skip!!!! Brightened his
day! He didn’t recognize me without any
hair!

The reissue was a total surprise to me, a Canadian friend
from the Glen Buxton Memorial told me about it and had a copy. Some of those bonus tracks were songs that
were supposed to be on AWOL.

What happened for you after the 20th Century Zoo?

In the Army I was going to Basic Army Medical Corps in Fort
Sam Houston, Texas I had bought a Hummingbird hollow body guitar and let an
African American guy play it on the steps. He was playing it when a big black Cadillac with a big black preacher
approached him and asked him to play for his congregation. He said it wasn’t his, but the guy that can
play it is inside, so he got me to come out and talk to the preacher. That next Sunday I played for the church, I
was the only white guy in there, but they were very nice to me. When I got stationed at Fort Lewis again I
saw an ad on the bulletin board of the hospital for a talent show. So, I entered with that Hummingbird and took
1st place in the District Championships, which put me into the Regional
Championships for that one I added a drummer and a bass player, picked up my
electric Gibson 330 while on Christmas Vacation, prayed to God to help me find
ways to get temporary duty papers so I wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam. So I played Orange Blossom Special like my
life depended on it, threw the guitar behind my head for show, and blew them
away! I never knew there were so many
country boys in the Army till they gave me a standing ovation and I took 1st
place in the Regional Championships. The
Army flew me up to San Francisco, Presidio Playhouse Theater to put together a
touring show called CMTS’70 or (Command Military Touring Show 1970). There we had our own private billets with a
General’s car to pick us up with little flags on the front fenders. Made the other guys jealous with the
treatment we received. The tour started
off in Sausalito, California where we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge with
my show clothes swinging above me in an Army bus. Then for the tour we had a chartered
Greyhound bus take us down the West coast installations playing for different
places and went into the hospitals to play songs like “Suicide Is Painless” for
guys that had their limbs amputated and couldn’t come to hear us. We went to them! The USO wanted me to take the plans for the
show over to Europe and go for the World Championships. This was about the time that the C130’s were
being used by the Army to pull troops out of Vietnam, so they booked me for a
later flight overseas. That put me into
Frankfurt, Germany too late for the World Championships, so I checked in with
USO and they supplied me with my own amplifier to use while I was there. The Frankfurt Theatre had a 1971 Tournament
of Plays that I could get into. They
gave me the script, I dropped a tab of LSD and read through the whole play that
night. Returned the next day and said I
really want to do this play! I could see
mirrors of past to present reflected in the writings of Marat / Sade, we took
first place in the District Championships, first place in the Regional
Championships, held over for 2 weeks with a Command Performance that was
videotaped. We wound up with the best
English speaking play on the continent of Europe with advertisements on Armed
Forces Radio.

Another time I was practicing for Greasy Cheese in the
billets when Joachim Mann was walking by and stopped outside the door to
listen. His band was playing in
Dusseldorf, Germany that night and he asked me if I wanted to join them on
stage? I had never played in an
all-German band and knew that music was Universal so, why not? Glen Buxton, lead from the Alice Cooper Band
had just sent me a couple of packs of Ernie Balls Super Slinky strings that I
couldn’t find in Germany so when I showed up and started playing a group of
guys started forming in front of me playing watching me stretch and pull off
strings like they had never seen anyone ever do before. The rest of the band noticed the extra attention
they were getting and asked me to join their group. Homunculus was the name of the German band,
the lead singer spoke 4 languages so he knew what he was singing, the
background singers sang phonetically. They did a couple of my tunes and we were part of Concert ’71 album
recorded at the Capitol Theatre in Oberusal, Germany. My German girlfriend Ericka Shork was my
translator for that show and later she played the part of a nurse to put Alice
Cooper in a strait jacket. I played the
part of a gorilla that swooped Alice up on my shoulder for the end of a
song. In Germany if a band doesn’t play
for a gig that it has contracted to play, then the band has to pay as much as
they were to receive. So I stayed with the
Alice Cooper band at the Galesi Estate during the Killer Rehearsals for 4 days
and returned to Germany to finish the rest of the band’s obligations.

Recorded some more with a group called 21st Century Zoo, but
it was short lived due to the lead singer’s substance abuse.

Are you still musically active?

Play guitar for Eastside Baptist Church in Phoenix. Alice says that’s probably why I’m still
alive! It’s not about me anymore, it’s
about my savior Jesus Christ. It’s a
relationship, not a religion. A hospital
for sinners, not a country club for saints. We play traditional Baptist hymns from like the 17th Century forward and
read from a hymnal. To learn the songs I
put them into Cakewalk note by note, listened to the playbacks, used music
theory to decipher chords for guitar, then put them into Word with chords above
them so I wouldn’t have to turn pages for live performances. It’s about 9” thick now so I have to organize
random songs that the congregation gets to pick any song they want to hear. The books are too heavy to put on a music
stand.

Thank you very much. Would you like to share anything else?
Perhaps a message to It's Psychedelic Baby fans?

What we see is temporary, what we don’t see is infinite. God
is love, and may it be with you all. Since I can’t see the Psychedelic Baby fans now, I’ll see you
later! Thanks for reading this, far out!

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Psychedelic Folk issue available

Dedicated to British psychedelic folk. New issue of printed version projected from the well-known, leading psych on-line site It’s Psychedelic Baby. After the previous issue covering exclusively the US psychedelic folk scene (IPB 002, 2016), this new issue covers the 1960s and 1970s British folk scene, with exclusive interviews of members from acts such as Fresh Maggots, Comus, Mellow Candle, Dr Strangely Strange, Spirogyra, C.O.B., Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Pererin, Courtyard Music Group, Magic Carpet, Sunforest, Oberon, etc. Also includes a few pages of record reviews. Cover by Justin Jackley.